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Eating consciously will give your body the building blocks necessary to achieve maximum endurance, coordination, and skill. However, this is no easy task. One of the hardest responsibilities as a soccer coach while on the road is monitoring your players’ food intake. As their soccer coach, it is important for you as their coach to give the players a list of foods that will help their bodies recover quickly and give them the most energy for the following games. First of all, some of the tournaments I have coached in often play games with only a brief time between games. This is often not enough time to leave the complex to eat. In this situation, instruct your players to bring energy snacks that are easy and are an excellent energy source. These snacks are easy to carry and won’t spoil. Every muscle in your body derives energy from glucose, which is a very basic, very tiny form of sugar. Glucose is stored in the form of glycogen. It’s like when you fold your clothes to put them in your drawers—you change its shape so that it can fit more efficiently. Well, that’s what your body does with glucose. It “folds” the glucose molecule into glycogen and then “unfolds” it when it needs it. Of course, the science behind your body’s metabolism is a lot more complicated than laundry, but what you need to know is that glycogen plays a vital role in your body’s ability to perform well. All too many players skimp on glycogen by eating too few carbohydrates. While a soccer athlete should be getting 2400 to 3000 carb calories per day, most only get around 1200. At the level, you’re already behind when you start a practice session or game, and you can drain your carbohydrate reserves by the second half of a game! That’s because the alternating fast and slow running can quickly use up the glycogen in your legs. Even just 30 seconds of running during a game can trim your glycogen stores by 30 percent! To give your body an adequate supply of glycogen for practice, training, and the big game, eat carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, potatoes, pasta, cereal, low-fat dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. Focus on complex carbohydrates (those with a low to moderate glycemic index) like oatmeal, bran, and brown rice; these take longer for your body to break down, which gives your cells more time to turn the glucose into glycogen rather than fat. Plus, they usually contain more vitamins, fiber, and minerals, all of which help your body stay healthy and strong. When you do eat simple carbohydrates, stick to fruit, low-fat milk, and yogurt. Avoid refined foods, which are simple carbohydrates devoid of vitamins and minerals, like white rice, sugar, candy, soda, and anything made with white flour. Ideally, complex carbs combined with some minimally-processed simple carbs should make up about 65% of your diet. In other words, every time you look at your plate, make sure that at least half of it consists of nutritious carbohydrate-rich food. The most critical meal is actually the day BEFORE the game. It should be plentiful with good carbohydrates, as well as a little protein and fat. Also, keeping your body hydrated is really important, no matter what you’re doing, but any liquid that’s caffeinated, carbonated, and/or packed with high fructose corn syrup won’t give your body energy. Believe it or not, they can actually dehydrate you. It sounds a little counterintuitive, but here’s how it works. Up to 60 percent of the body is water (the brain is composed of 70 percent water, blood is 82 percent water, and the lungs are nearly 90 percent water). Every time you sweat, you lose some of that precious water, along with electrolytes—minerals that are critical to your performance. A sugary, caffeinated and/or carbonated drink will act as a diuretic, making you lose a lot more water than you normally would. As a result, you could end up not only dehydrated, but also lacking electrolytes and putting yourself much closer to fatigue.
SOCCER SNACK FOODS
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